Bandh in Poonch on day-3, Traffic off the road; Poonch-Jammu road blocked

Non-inclusion of Ch. Aslam in State Cabinet

Day long Protests continued on third day today in twin Boarder Districts of Rajouri and Poonch . the people of both districts are demonstrating against non inclusion of veteran Gujjar leader ,Former Finance Minister and PCC Chief Chowdhary Mohammad Aslam in State Cabinet.The taraffic on all the routs of Poonch halted by the protesters who were demonding immidaite inclusion of their leader in the State cabinet. In todays protest thousands of people including congress workers of twin district assembled in various localities and staged protest demonstration against the party decision. Major protest was held in Surankote, Sheindara and Jaranwaligali areas of Poonch distric in which thousands of localpeople belonging to every walk of life staged protest demonstrations and halted the movement of traffic on Jammu Poonch National High way. Day long bandh was also observed in surankote and Mehnder. The protest rallies were by local tribal leaders of the area include Ch Sayaid Mohammad, Ch.Fazal Mushtaq, Ch M H Saleem, Bashir Poswal, Rashid Kalas and other local . The protesters demanded resignation of Saif-ud Din Soz, the President of Pardesh Congress Committee and ACCI Gen Secretary Pathivi Raj Chouhan Incharge J&K. They said that Ch. Aslam is most deserving candidate of the region and qualify to be inducted into the council of Ministers. A number of telegrams addressed to UPA Chairperson Smt Sonia Gandhi were depatched today where under it has been strongly demanded that Ch Mohammad Aslam should immediately inducted in to the State cabinet . The peoples of Poonch Rajouri also urged to Congress leader that due share be given to Poonch Rajouri districts which is considered as a most neglected area of the State and warns against any sort of discriminations on the issue. In Mehandher town a partial Bandh was observed . The ralley was addressed by Ch Zaffar-ullah District Congress President local dignitaries include Ch. Yusuof, Ved Viyas, Mohammad Shries, Kafeel Khan and others . Thousands of people of the area participated in the protest and raised slogans against the decision of excluding senior most Congress the area in recent expansion. The Speaker stated that Ch. Aslam, a sixth time legislature of the community and also considered as one of the stalwarts of Congress party and this is humiliating for Jammu region, as our leader Ch. Aslam was ignored in respect of his superior claim. The senior congress leader who was first made pro term speaker was earlier left out at the time of government formation in January and again on Saturday when his name did not figure in the final list of congress men inducted in the Omar Abdullahs council of ministers he chose to resign from the post of CLP leader. Choudary Aslam,70, a former president of JKPCC is the senior most leader among the present lot and a prominent Gujjar leader, elected from Surankote constituency of Poonch district. Aslam defeated NC leader and former minister Syed Mushtaq Bukhari by a margin of 2600 votes. he was till November this year a member of the Rajya Sabha.